Chinese Medicines for Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes:A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objective To systematically review the efficacy and safety between Chinese medicines for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Methods Based on the principles and methods of Cochrane systematic reviews,we searched MEDLINE,the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials,CBM,CNKI,VIP and WanFang database from inception to May 2011.We handsearched references and relevant journals.The risk of bias in the included RCTs were evaluated according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews.The Cochrane Collaboration's software RevMan5.0 was used for meta-analysis.Results Seventeen RCTs involving 2 257 patients were identified.The methodological quality ranked high in 1 RCT.FBG was significant lower in Chinese medicines group than dietetic and exercise treatment,and total effective rate was higher in Chinese medicines than biomedicine.Side effects were reported in 4 articles,mainly were gastrointestinal symptoms.Conclusion There was no adequate evidence to confirm whether biomedicine can be substituted by Chinese medicines for the treatment of type 2 Diabetes mellitus.Therefore,more large-sample,multicentre,high quality RCTs to confirm this conclusion are needed.